106 travelers at this place:

I just have ro add a little about our perfect birthday dinner! Our deal is to have half board at the hotels in these small towns, which means we have dinner there...it is quite a fancy restaurant, but we get the menu del dia, or the peregrino menu,which gives choices of entrée, main and dessert, bread, wine and water, but not the full a la cartel menu. It is usually pretty standard stuff - good hearty food, but not gourmet. Well tonight it was chef quality, and made it special...we started with a soup with chickpeas, cod and spinach, then Amr had an amazing fish dish and I had crepes filled with goat cheese and jamon and salad garnish...all out of the usual range, so delicious and special for a birthday dinner. No photos of it as neither of us had our phones..but may add other Astorga photos, as wifi good!Read more

Hello from Ponferrada, Spain. First off, Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom...thank you for all of your support! I took it easy today and got myself to Ponferrada. I stayed in a small hotel last night so, unlike an albergue, check out time was not until noon. That enabled me to sleep in and take my time this morning. I also got my flight booked to come home this morning. I have an 8:30 am flight on Friday the 25th out of Porto, Portugal landing in Boston at 1:20 pm. An 11 hour flight but I lose 6 hours with the time difference. I will take the train or bus to Portland and Connor is picking me up there. I met up with two older gentlemen from London last night in Leon. They had just arrived and begin walking to Santiago today. They are taking the easier method of walking the Camino....they walk until they are tired and call someone from their booking agency to drive them to the next town. We met up at a cafe and when they learned I had been walking for almost three weeks, they wanted to here some of my stories. As it turned out, we had dinner together and had a great political discussion among other topics. The really great part?...they bought the wine!...which was the really good stuff! I arrived at the bus depot in Ponferrada at around 3pm. I had a 2mile or so walk to find the Camino path and a place to stay around 4:30. I ended up in a small albergue. I had dinner tonight with an engineer from Frankfort, Germany and a physician from Barcelona, Spain. Again, great discussion and food. Tomorrow, I am on the trail again...15 miles to the next town. I will enter the province of Galicia in the next couple of days. Galacia is very mountainous and the scenery is stunning I have been told so the photos from here on in to Santiago should be great. Galacia also has a huge Celtic influence so that should be interesting to see. It is also known for its seafood...especially octopus and I will be trying that out for sure. It is also very mountainous, so I will be grinding up and down huge hills once again. That’s it from here...I hope this finds everyone well!Read more

You’re right, I could do all of this 😂 Brad and I miss you like crazy and will be in Portland waiting for your tired ass! I’m sure the political discussion was very elightening, lol. The lawn is out of hand and will stay that away until your return!!! Miss you!

As I write this, I am sitting next to the Knights Templar Castle in Ponferrada which is my end point. This phase of the Camino is over after 150 or so miles. I will spend the night here and travel to Madrid in the morning. So, a small hotel in Madrid tomorrow night and catch a plane home Saturday morning is all that is left. It has been a great trip and I met great people along the way. I managed this trip much better as far as keeping my feet healthy and the whole planning part of things. There are a lot of people from the United States, Western Canada, Australia and Germany out here...I saw more of these nationalities then any other this trip. I really only met two people that I didn’t care for and both were obnoxious entitled women from Cape Cod. The French people that I met this time along the way were great! As always thank you for checking in and I will see you all soon. Thanks!Read more

Just checked in and caught up on the second phase of your camino which I can’t believe is over already. Great to read about some of the places I loved along the way too. Sounds like a great experience - well done!

Good morning from some small village west of Villa Franca del Bierzo where I woke up this morning. I left Ponferrada yesterday morning around 7am and arrived in Villa Franca del Bierzo at around 3pm. The walk was through a few small towns and I am back into vineyards once again. I stayed in a new albergue last night. I was referred to this place by another albergue who was nearly full. The lady who owns it is struggling to make it even though it is a nice place. It was nearly empty except for 3 other people. She doesn’t have a cafe/bar and her WiFi is terrible so it turns a lot of people away. But, she was a very nice lady in her late 60’s I would guess. She even did my laundry for me...washed/dried and folded. And the fact that there were only 3 other people in the large bunk room, I slept very well which is first for an albergue for me. Other than all that, I am just knocking out the miles to Santiago. I hope everyone is well!Read more

We hiked back up into some wine country today ending in Villafranca. Tomorrow, we will try to go about 18 miles ending with the climb to O’Cebreiro. The weather may be wet with some thunderstorms, so we will see if we get that far. ☔️🌩

Tonight, we had a fun dinner with our friends from the Netherlands, England and Japan. The chickpea soup, that some ordered, ended up having intestine and some other unidentifiable bits which caused lots of uncontrollable laughter...good times. Thank goodness I had the pasta salad!!!

We are at a stage of our journey where some of our group may go faster or slower to get to Santiago, so we hugged and talked of looking out for each other at the end in case we don’t see each other after tonight. I’m going to think positively and say we will see each other in Santiago, if not before! 🙂

I can't wait to see you. Can't find .message from Alan.thought he said you had 7 stages to go his last message. Can't tell day you wrote, says yesterday but thought you were a stage beyond that. Need a day on .message. think I lost you in a vineyard somewhere. Hugs from Wenatchee. 🌬😊🍺🍺🍷 Thought he said he said you

Hey, from the city of Leon, Spain. So, today, reality took over. I woke up this morning in a small town on the meseta in central Spain. I knew as I have known for days that as much as I walked, I would not have enough days to get to Santiago. My choices were to ask for two more weeks off so I would have the time to complete this trip or to travel forward by bus or train. I decided that I cannot ask my coworkers to cover me for an additional two weeks and to be honest, I have no desire to be out here for an additional two weeks anyway. So, instead of slogging through the rain on the meseta with no realistic goal in sight, I decided to catch a bus to Leon. I have a difficult time with this as I set out to complete the whole 500 miles but will fall short of that goal. But, at the same time, I do realize that I set very difficult goals for myself. I thought I could bang out the 16 miles a day pace without rest days and complete this in 32 days. To the contrary, I have discovered that unless you are a marathoner, young and in shape, that is not a realistic goal. My son could do it in that time frame being 19 and in shape from a lacrosse season, but not I. Soooo...I will start again on the trail from Ponferrada on Monday morning. That is 128 miles from Santiago. I have been averaging 12 miles per day for the past 2 1/2 weeks. I will need to average 15 miles per day to get to Santiago, give myself time to get to Portugal and get my ass on a plane back home on the 25th of this month. But, at least this is an obtainable goal. I will settle for the 328 miles walking...short of my goal...but okay in my mind. I have already accomplished what I set out to do when I started this. Also, there are many ways to do this trek. Many people send there pack forward by courier....I have chosen to grind it out with my pack on my back the whole way...as I will continue to do till the end. Not many photos today as it was more a travel day and a logistical planning day for me. Goodnight from Leon.Read more

Phil, you have accomplished so much and be so proud of yourself! I am glad to see that you are okay in your mind with how the trek has panned out. I am very much proud of you and all that you’ve done. I think I can speak for all the girls when I say we miss your “Phil-isms” and can’t wait to see you back at work!

When I was putting together my video footage from today, I chose the song “Glorious” by MaMuse because that seemed to fit today. All of us had reservations in León, so we were able to take our time and enjoy a few more leisurely cafe stops along the way. Then we ended up hiking in and through a huge sheep 🐑 herd, we found some Camino friends we hadn’t seen since earlier, and ended our day with 16 of us enjoying a great dinner in León this evening.

At the end of dinner, we had to say goodbye to Chamu, who is returning home to his family. He originally planned on walking for about eight days, but has now been walking for over 20. Once he met Paku, and heard his story of surviving cancer, they became fast friends, and were nicknamed the “Lavender Brothers” for always picking some wild lavender and attaching it to their backpacks 🎒. Chamu gave us all a copy of this quote by Eduardo Galeano as a parting gift:

“Each person shines with his or her own light. No two flames are alike. There are big flames and little flames, flames of every color. Some people’s flames are so still they don’t even flicker in the wind, while others have wild flames that fill the air with sparks. Some foolish flames neither burn nor shed light, but others blaze with life so fiercely that you can’t look at them without blinking, and if you approach, you shine in the fire.”

He told us that we were all flames of light and he has pieces of us that will always be with him, and we will have pieces of him, so only happy tears were allowed. 🙂💕

Tomorrow, we get to explore León and tour the cathedral, AND word on the street from Emily and Andy is there is a Taste of America store that has Jif Peanut Butter. Alan is pretty pumped at the possibility. 😂😂Read more

Hello from Spain once again. As I write this, it is Friday morning and I am getting ready to leave Leon. This post covers the past 3 days of travel. I left Sahagún Tuesday morning and ended up in a very small town with a great Casa rural...a small hotel run by a great couple. It is undoubtedly the best place I have stayed on the Camino on either trip. I walked the next day to the larger town of Mansilla De Las Mulas or “The City of Mules”....however, I never did see a mule there. I stayed in a small albergue and cooked dinner there with some other travelers. Yesterday morning I walked into Leon. Walking into and out of Leon was a personal goal for me as I bused into the city back in May. It is hard to explain but when you walk many many miles with people and then you hop a bus, it just doesn’t feel right. Which is one reason I came back....I just had to do it “right” this time. This trip has had more meaning for some reason. This past spring, I spent more time seeing sights, taking photos, posting in my blog but this trip has been more about the walk itself and some personal connections. I walked from the last town to here early in the morning with a 75 year old South Korean woman who shared that her brother was taken away to fight the North Koreans and was killed back in 1951. She was crying during the story....people share things like that here for some reason...kind of the magic of the place. As I walked into Leon yesterday, an old woman was sitting on the Camino path. She reached out to me and held my hand for a couple of seconds, smiled, looked into my eyes and nodded as if to say that I was doing the right thing by walking the Camino. It only lasted a few seconds but I doubt that I will ever forget it. I have rambled long enough...time to get on the trail. Thank you as always for checking in.Read more

We had a great day today! We went just over 13 miles, so a few miles shorter than yesterday. The early morning, walking as the sun rises, is amazing to me! Amazing because it’s incredibly beautiful and peaceful, but also amazing because in my normal life I hate mornings - haha! I’m usually a night owl and would rather sleep in a bit. Now, I still may grumble a bit as Alan nudges me awake, but I love it once I’m out walking. 🙂

The good:
1. sunrise over the wheat fields
2. Fields of sunflowers all turned towards the rising sun (I so wish we could see them all in bloom).
3. Seeing the Moratinos bodegas (caves built into a hill) that were used for wine making and food storage. Some of these were at least 500 years old! Tree was a sign telling us that “No, these are not Hobbit houses” 😂
4. The best almond pastries from a cafe in Sahagún, and the WiFi at the same cafe so I could upload some posts
5. Getting to our albergue by noon and enjoying sangria outside
6. Seeing Andy walk up to the albergue after we worried his Achilles wouldn’t let him continue on today
7. Shade on the last part of our walk was heavenly
8. having our own bathroom !!!!!! 😀👍🏻🚽
9. Talking to Mom and seeing Adrianne’s Snaps 💕

The Not So Good:
1. Mosquito bites 😖 I have quite a few from the other day’s early morning walking near some wet areas, and they really itch. Of course Alan has ZERO -not fair!
2. Flies...I am trying to get used to the flies, but they are annoying. 🤨 Everyone is so used to them here, but, when Alan told me to just ignore them, I told him they tickle when they land on me 😬 drives me nuts!

We head to Mansilla de las Mulas tomorrow (about 16 miles), and then on to Leon on Thursday where we will spend two nights (taking a rest day)...woohoo!Read more

Another dry day but cooler because of a decent breeze. I left Calzadilla after a good nights sleep outside. The walk was the usual meseta scenery. I arrived in Sahagún at around 2pm and checked in to a very nice Hostal with a private room. The Hostal itself was great the town was not so great. Sahagún is a mid sized Spanish city that has not a lot of life and no decent restaurants at least that I could find. It reminded me some of Lewiston so I ended up eating at my Hostal....a decent pilgrim meal but nothing amazing. That’s it for my Monday....thank you as always for checking in!Read more